Pharmacia-Pfizer Merger Is Official

Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd on Thursday announced the proposal to merge the company with Pfizer Ltd. The merger will be effective from December 1, 2003.

Addressing sharholders at the 58th annual general meeting, Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd chairman RA Shah said: Internationally, Pharmacia Corporation has merged with Pfizer Inc. Consequently, the board of Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd would, in due course, consider a legal merger of the company with Pfizer Ltd and a comprehensive scheme of amalgamation would be placed for the shareholders approval after complying with the requisite statutory approvals and procedures.

FE had reported about the merger on April 24. Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd is in the process of appointing independent valuers to decide the swap ratio for the amalgamation.

The operational integration of Pharmacia Healthcare with Pfizer Ltd was already accomplished during 2003. The Ankleshwar plant of Pharmacia Healthcare ceased operations from October 2003 and the production has been shifted to third-party manufacturer. A total of 89 employees migrated to Pfizer. The remaining 188 employees opted for voluntary retirement scheme for which the total outgo was Rs 20.5 crore.

The change in parents stake post merger can be determined only when the valuation is completed, said Pfizer Ltd executive director finance Kewal Handa.

Added Pfizer Ltd managing director Hocine Sidi Said: The revenues for the 11 month period ending November 30, 2003 at Rs 30 crore was adversely impacted due to organisational restructuring along with various external factors like trade apprehension of introduction of VAT, transporters strike and sluggish growth in the pharmaceutical sector. However, the result for the first quarter of this year reflects an optimistic trend.

Later in the day, Pfizer Ltd chairman RA Shah, while addressing the shareholders at the companys 53rd annual general meeting, said, Pfizer, which has built some of the best brands and one of the best trained field forces, now has the opportunity to partner with Pharmacia which is reputed for setting measures of excellence in a number of complemantary areas. In particular, those therapeutic areas where they have built a strong presence, such as high science products in oncology and ophthalmology.